Whether you laughed at that or not isn’t the point. The point is that I tried to make you laugh. Comedy is one of the most powerful and universal social tools in the world. Jokes and funny stories are devices designed to entertain people. Making people laugh is something I love to do. Being a class clown is something I’ve become accustomed to and enjoyed. Laughter, I believe, is essential to living a happy and balanced life. The most accurate measurement of someone’s love for life is how often he or she laughs. If you followed around any random person and counted the amount of times they laughed in one day, you could predict their happiness and security with themselves.

My joke may have been corny, but it was original, and it fulfilled a personal goal of mine. Laughing is something I have to do regularly to feel like my self, but making people laugh on a daily basis is even more gratifying. Without comedy I wouldn’t be the person who I am. I’m that kid always making a scene doing something goofy; its not cause I feed off of attention, it’s because I am improving someone’s day. The daily laugh test isn’t always accurate because everyone has his or her melancholy days. However comedy is something that can change a moment, a day or even a life for someone.

The universality of comedy is something I truly appreciate as well. Almost all conscious human beings have the ability to laugh. No matter what language you speak, what ideologies you subscribe to, or what culture you identify yourself with, there is always something that can make you laugh. Lenny Bruce, Richard Prior, Eddy Murphy and Rodney Dangerfield were all legends of comedy. I’m not trying to be a legend. These comics changed people’s worlds. I’m just trying to change people’s days, one laugh at a time.

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This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.